Tag: Ionic

  • Andrew Jackman Mausoleum, St. Mary’s Cemetery

    An impressive Ionic temple, larger than usual for a mausoleum of this type—note the double bronze doors.

  • Catanzaro Monument, Calvary Cemetery

    The Catanzaro monument in Calvary Cemetery is almost unique in Pittsburgh in being built in the form of a ruin—specifically a ruined Ionic temple.

  • G. E. Smith Mausoleum, Union Dale Cemetery

    Here lie the earthly remains of Pittsburg Phil, as George E. Smith was known when he moved to Chicago.

    The Union Dale Cemetery is full of colorful characters who grew rich in shady businesses—Allegheny was a notoriously corrupt city, and indeed one of the arguments often advanced by advocates of “Greater Pittsburgh” was that Allegheny needed a dose of good clean Pittsburgh government. We pause for the requisite howls of laughter.

    Pittsburg Phil was less shady than many: he merely bet on horses, and he made millions doing so. He was famously impassive and disdained corruption of any sort. He commissioned this mausoleum when he was still in his thirties, doubtless imagining many years of satisfaction ahead of him in knowing that his final resting place would be one of the most elegant in the Union Dale Cemetery. In fact he died in 1905 at the age of forty-three. The cemetery’s site has his whole story, which is fascinating.

    The statue on top is a portrait of the man himself, clutching a Racing Form. It was commissioned by his mother some time after his death. The fact that his urns are always filled with beautiful plantings suggests that even now, more than a century later, there are people who treasure the memory of Pittsburg Phil. Inside is a simple but elegant stained-glass window.

  • Schreiner Mausoleum, Union Dale Cemetery

    One of the largest and most elaborate mausoleums in Pittsburgh, this pile of classical Ionic detailing is topped by a statue of Hope shaking her fist at the heavens. The Schreiners must have been a very wealthy family, but they leave very little trace on the Internet, and (rather absurdly) do not even appear in the Union Dale Cemetery’s own list of “Notables.”

  • Heinz Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

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    This magnificent Roman temple holds more dead people than any other mausoleum in the Homewood Cemetery, with an extensive basement accessible by a removable section of mosaic floor. (How’s that for a scene in a Gothic novel?) H. J. Heinz, the pickle and ketchup king, and generations of his descendants are buried here, including his great-grandson Senator John Heinz.

    Addendum: The architects of the mausoleum were Vrydaugh & Wolfe, who also designed Warwick House for Howard Heinz.